Saving for that family trip
EVERYONE in my class had a Dollarmite account. They got snazzy rulers, erasers and pencils, everything a future journalist would want.
But my dad had me open a passbook account. It was a wallet-sized book listing each transaction, each deposit, written in the bank clerk’s tidy handwriting ... and absolutely no gimmicks. A much better return for my money but still.
It was a great way to see my savings over time, but there was little else in the way of financial education afforded to me by my parents.
We were not told how much our parents made from their jobs, nor what the mortgage was, or what groceries cost each week.
Leaving home to become a poorly paid sandwich artist and university student was surely a baptism of fire into the world of budgeting.
It was either get it right or starve. I would tell you I’m kidding, except that I’ve sat in enough quiet lecture halls trying to hush an angry, empty stomach, to know I speak the truth.
Clearly, I don’t want malnutrition to be on my children’s list of concerns when they leave home, so I have tried to be upfront when they ask about our finances.
They know what I make. And since we watched Teenage Boss on ABC together recently and I could not stifle my guffaws at a $50 grocery budget for a family of four ... well, now they also know how much it costs to keep a family fed.
It is more difficult to teach kids about money now.
Technology has made it so we rarely have actual dollars in our pockets.
But one thing I do is take them grocery shopping with me. I assign them tasks, like finding the cheapest sugar, or the best value cereal. It means they’re putting actual life skills to use, and they’re not playing tag around the trolley (bonus!).
Another lesson for them, in life as well as with money, is the overseas trip we are taking at the end of the year. One that requires careful planning and a significant amount of saving.
I am reminding them of the upcoming trip each time we drive past the corner store and I am assailed with “can I please have”, “are we getting” and, my youngest, “get me a Crunchie!” (the Cadbury doesn’t fall far from the tree).
They’re learning about saving and also experiencing some delayed gratification.
(Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for a Dollarmite ruler with the changing pictures.) Peta Jo is an author and mother of three. Visit her on Facebook.